Can you believe it? I’m actually making a second update this month. Let this be the start of a new trend! Despite popular belief, I do more than read comic books and watch animation. I love watching and learning about old films. I watched the box office flop Hail, Caesar! (great concept, actors, costumes, and sets, but the story execution was confusing) and learned about aqua musical star Esther Williams. I rented her film Neptune’s Daughter and it wasn’t her best, but I did discover something fun related to animation. The movie’s story is not that great: typical Shakespearean case of mistaken identities mixed with Hollywood glamor. Williams starred in it along with comedian Red Skelton, Betty Garret, and Ricardo Montalbán played her romantic interest. Older fans will recognize Montalbán from Paradise Island and if you’re born in this century you will know him as Señor Senior, Senior from Kim Possible. Yes, dear Trekkies, I know he was also Khan.

The movie takes place in Argentina and is full of Hispanic stereotypes. Skelton tries to pass himself off as an Argentine polo player and engages in this ridiculous scene:

It’s also the first cinematic presentation of the famous Christmas carol “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

Maybe it’s just conditioning, but this song doesn’t fit in a non-winter themed movie.

While watching Neptune’s Daughter, a character named Pancho had a familiar voice. I turned to my TV and saw some white dude masquerading as someone of Hispanic origin and he sported a stereotypical Mexican accent. I thought the actor was ripping off Mel Blanc, then I read the credits. The actor was Blanc himself in one of his few screen appearances!

I’d post a clip, but I don’t know how to rip or edit videos. Blanc used his Speedy Gonzales voice for his role as Pancho and even more interesting is that this was before Speedy existed. The movie was released in 1949 and Speedy came along in 1953. It goes to show that Blanc was practicing his vocal skills well before he strictly specialized in voice acting.

If you don’t want to watch Neptune’s Daughter, you’ll get the just of Blanc’s performance in this old Jack Benny clip.

Long time, no see or write Toon-In Talk fans! A lot has happened to me in the past ten months. I’ll write about that in another post, but one of the things that happened was something remarkable. As a member of Women In Animation, I’m privy to a lot of really cool news, including this documentary directed by Christine Guest called Beyond Ink and Paint: The Women of Animation.

I am the first person since 1931 to write a comprehensive biography in English about Lotte Reiniger. I am also the first person EVER to write a critical approach to Reiniger’s career in relation to the animation industry and puppetry community as a whole. What does that mean? I read and wrote a lot and I did something before everyone else did. Wait…FIRST! It really means I’m one of the only experts on Lotte Reiniger in the world.

Apart from correcting 90% of available information about Reiniger, I can also speak with authority about her career. Christine Guest knew she couldn’t make a documentary without mentioning Lotte Reiniger, so she interviewed me to speak about her career. I’m going to have my own IMDB entry now!

Christine needs YOUR help to complete production on Beyond Ink and Paint: The Women of Animation. Beyond Ink and Paint needs to raise $75,000. Christine interviewed many big names for the documentary including moi, my friend Brenda Chapman, Darla K. Anderson, my other friend Yvette Kaplan, yet another friend Jinko Gotoh, Lauren Faust, Don Hahn, Emily Hubley, Candy Kugel, Lisa Goldman, Tracey Miller-Zarneke, and more. Much like my book, Christine’s documentary is the first of it’s kind and it is important to acknowledge how far the animation industry has come. See the trailer below and please support Beyond Ink and Paint:

Hello and welcome to twenty-ninth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Concluding Whitney’s longer than expected series the Ladies of Animation is an interview with Academy Award winner director Brenda Chapman. Brenda is best recognized for her work as the writer and director of Pixar‘s Brave and the director of DreamWorks’s The Prince of Egypt. She also had an extraordinary career at Disney working on Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King. Brenda Chapman has since embarked on an independent creative career with her husband, director Kevin Lima.

Brenda Chapman is the director of Brave and Prince of Egypt. She has worked in the animation industry since the early days of the Disney Renaissance and first worked on The Little Mermaid.

As many an animator, Brenda grew up watching Looney Toons and through close, personal connections contacted Disney Feature Animation, who sent her a brochure about CalArts.

The main influence on Brenda’s work was her mother.

Brenda had the privilege to know legendary animator Joe Ranft and he encouraged her to concentrate more on storytelling.

Brenda has experience storytelling for the screen and page. The biggest difference for her is that regular prose writing demands more detail that is usually visually communicated.

When Brenda was applying for jobs after CalArts, she put together a portfolio consisting of her clean-up work and tossed in a storyboard in the back. Disney loved her storyboard over her clean-up animation.

She shared that the only reason why Disney hired her was due to her gender, but once she was in the department Brenda never felt any discrimination.

Whitney is curious about the chaotic neutral will o’wisps in Brave and Brenda clears up her confusion.

Brenda shares the lowdown on George Lucas’s Strange Magic that delivered an odd story. In short, there wasn’t much of a story to begin with.

Brenda shared that getting a greenlight and keeping her job on an animated film are some of the biggest challenges she faced.

Brenda is keeping busy with many writing projects and is starting a company with her husband.

Hello and welcome to twenty-eighth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Every year Whitney heads to Atlanta, GA to mingle with other geeks and practice her puppetry skills at DragonCon. DragonCon is the biggest fan run convention in the United States and in 2016 there will be over 75000 attendees and over 3500 hours of programming. Even though he is working 24/7 until the convention ends, Dan Carroll, DragonCon’s head honcho, had an hour to chat with Whitney about the new happenings for 2016, including animation and puppetry guests.

DragonCon is a totally volunteer run convention located in Atlanta, GA.

Whitney and Dan both love the diversity of programming available to attendees. The program topics range from the classic sci-fi shows like Star Wars and Star Trek to science, puppetry, podcasting, animation, anime/manga, and, this year, boy bands!

DragonCon is also a huge music festival within a convention featuring singers and musicians from all genres.

One of the new things for 2016 are the Dragon Awards! The Dragon Awards honor individuals in literary, TV, film, and other mediums who have made extraordinary contributions to science fiction and fantasy anniversary.

The Dragon Awards also celebrate DragonCon’s 30th. anniversary.

DragonCon is four days log with over 3500 hours of programming. These hours include performances, lectures, presentations, and dances. DragonCon is alive 24/7 during Labor Day weekend!

Whitney and Dan both encourage DragonCon attendees to take care of themselves by showering, eat two meals, and get at least five hours of sleep. Also don’t forget to wear deodorant in the Georgia heat to avoid the con-funk.

The best way to ensure attendees have the best DragonCon experience is to download and use the DragonCon app to make a schedule, view programming, and rate programs.

Brian Henson and several other famous puppeteers are going to be there, much to Whitney’s excitement. The cast of iZombie, William Shatner, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon cast members, Mystery Science Theater folks, and Adult Swim guests will be in attendance.

Whitney is a huge Labyrinth fan and this year is its 30th anniversary as well. The Center for Puppetry Arts is holding a masquerade ball with original props and puppets from the 1986 film. Unfortunately, that has sold out. However, there will be more Labyrinth based programming at DragonCon.

DragonCon does host two sports: professional wrestling and robot battles. In Whitney’s defense, some people do attempt to play Quidditch sans broom.

DragonCon could officially become a five-day event in the future.

One day Whitney hopes to be a guest at DragonCon with her book on Lotte Reiniger.

The DragonCon Masquerade Parade is the most popular event and this year it will be broadcast on network television.

DragonCon limits the amount of time reporters spend with guests, so they too, can enjoy the convention.

The shopping has expanded as has the art show, comic creators area, and gaming.

Dragon expects to have 75,000 attendees this year, when in past years they only had 28,000.

DragonCon has a huge programming track for animation fans. There is Kaleidoscope, a tween-based animation track, and then the animation track itself that covers a variety of topics related to the medium.

Dan Carroll has fun at DragonCon by practicing his stand-up comedy at Project Cosplay.

DragonCon has a staunch anti-harassment policy for all attendees so they fell safe and can have fun.

Hello and welcome to twenty-seventh episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Continuing with her fabulous Ladies of Animation series, Whitney interviews the one and only Vicky Jenson. Vicky is one of the top animation directors, in Whitney’s opinion, in Hollywood and she also lends her talents to television animation as well. She is respected as the director of DreamWorks’s Shrek and Shark Tale. Vicky’s resume includes the shows Smurfs, He-Man, JEM, She-Ra and the films The Road to El-Dorado, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, and FernGully. She discusses her past successes with Whitney and also hints at some exciting projects yet to come.

Vicky Jenson is an animation director who worked on many feature films and cartoons. Whitney’s favorite work of Vicky’s is Shrek.

Vicky never did any of the animation on the projects she worked on, but she has dabbled in different parts of the process, including storyboarding.

Remember that Old Navy advertising campaign a few years ago with the talking mannequins? That was Vicky Jenson’s work!

She became interested in directing when she worked in storyboarding, because she decided the camera angles, action, and loved the interaction with the story.

Whitney and Vicky discuss the benefits of drawing in a digital environment vs. the traditional pencil in hand model.

Vicky Jenson describes working in animation during the Saturday morning boom in the 1980s.

She joined DreamWorks and began work on The Road to El Dorado.

Jeffrey Katzenberg noticed Vicky Jenson’s talent for story and encouraged her to be storyboarding and directing.

Vicky later worked on Shrek and through her persistance and talent became one of the directors.

Vicky and Whitney talk about how storyboarding ins integral to the story process.

She left her position at DreamWorks animation in 2015 after being at the studio from the beginning.

When DreamWorks restructured in January 2015, the studio decided to end production on several animated film projects, including the one Vicky Jenson was on. It’s disappointing that some of these features will never be seen, especially since many of them were 70% animated.

Vicky Jenson is writing and illustrating her own graphic novel, much to Whitney’s excitement.

She is also working on a stage musical and is adapting a work. Vicky describes it as something between Cirque du Soiliel and Broadway.

Her advice to women interested in pursuing an animation career: get your stuff together and do it. Also seek out opportunities and pursue them when they appear.

Hello and welcome to twenty-sixth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Whitney is back from her hiatus and ready to finish her Ladies of Animation series. She’s returning with an awesome guest, Yvette Kaplan. Yvette Kaplan has a prestigious animation career working in both feature and television animation. She made a name for herself as the supervising director for the quintessential 1990s cartoon Beavis and Butt-Head. Yvette also directed the Beavis and Butt-Head Do America film that was the highest grossing non-Disney animated for years. Yvette works on any project that catches her interest and she shares her adventures in this interview.

Yvette Kaplan is famous for her work on Zack and Quack, Beavis and Butt-Head, Doug, and many other great projects.

She has carried many titles and roles in the animation industry, going as far back as being an ink and paint artist. She caught the animation bug when she was five years old.

She knew more about the Fleischer cartoons than she did the Disney features.

Yvette is also a fan of John and Faith Hubley’s works, a husband and wife team who made animated films.

When Yvette began her career, she was advised not to go into animation, but she didn’t listen and in the early 1990s, she began work on Nickelodeon’s NickToons.

She worked on the pilot for Doug, directed by Tony Eastman. Nickelodeon liked her work and she was a director on the series for three seasons.

Although she was very busy, Yvette consulted on The Magic School Bus.

Then Tony Eastman showed her two “gross boy” characters for a MTV show. Yvette Kaplan loved the humor and Mike Judge, the show’s creator, hired her to be the director on Beavis and Butt-Head.

She also directed Beavis and Butt-Head Do America and it was the highest grossing non-Disney animated movie for years.

Yvette would later return to Los Angeles with the intent to work on more feature and television, but she also wanted to explore all avenues.

She found a comfortable spot on the King of the Hill team as well as on the PBS show Arthur.

Drawing more on her extensive talents, Yvette made the children’s CGI show Zack and Quack. The animation looks like it was made from paper.

She prefers to work in television, but Yvette sometimes get the strong urge to work on a feature film.

Yvette recently worked on the fun new girl-based series from Disney called Star Darlings. She loves working on it, because it took her into a new genre she had never worked in before.

She shares that working on education based cartoons has its difficulties, but it was a challenge she loved.

From her perspective, Yvette wasn’t too aware about the lack of women in the animation industry. She never felt a ceiling and her positive attitude helped her push through many barriers. She became more aware of it as she matured.

Both Yevette and Whitney are huge fans of Steven Universe and Star vs. The Forces of Evil, two shows created by women.

Hello and welcome to twenty-fifth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Whitney had to take a short hiatus due to everything hitting the fan at once, but now she’s back with Art Brown, executive produce of DreamWorks’s How To Train Your Dragon: Dragons Race To the Edge. Dragons Race To the Edge is an exciting Netflix exclusive cartoon series and it continues with its second season. Hiccup, Astrid, Fishlegs, Tuffnut, Ruffnut, Snoutlout, Toothless, Stormfly, and all the other dragons are in for thrilling adventures as the protect the Edge from a duo of villainous brothers and discover more dragon species. Art Brown chats with Whitney about what to expect in Dragons Race To the Edge season two and she had a hard time controlling her laughter.

Art Brown is an executive producer on How To Train Your Dragon: Dragons Race To the Edge.

He says the new season will have brand new dragons, new dastardly brother villains named Viggo and Ryker, cool Astrid adventures, and some great comedy.

Whitney is a big stiggler for continuity and Art assures her that he is constantly in contact with the franchise as whole to retain continuity with the How To Train Your Dragon Dragons Race To the Edge takes place between the first two movies.

Hello and welcome to twenty-fourth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. It’s also time for the fourth round of interviews for the Ladies of Animation Month, Whitney Grace’s yearly tribute to women who work in the animation industry and mission to inspire girls to pursue their animated ambitions. Jinko Gotoh is the executive producer on the new animated feature film The Little Prince directed by Mark Osborne. Jinko has held various role in the animation industry, but she has made a well-respected name for herself as a producer. She’s produced Finding Nemo, 9, The Illusionist, and Escape From Planet Earth. She has been an animation fan since she was little girl and made Whitney’s head flip after sharing a story about meeting Osamu Tezuka.

Jinko Gotoh is the executive producer on the upcoming animated film The Little Prince directed by Mark Osborne.

Jinko shares some tidbits about The Little Prince. The book it’s based on is one of the best selling books of all time.

For The Little Prince, the film will use two forms of animation. CGI will be used for the “real world” sequences and the book portions of the movie will be in stop motion.

Jinko started working on the film when director Mark Osborne sought out producers who knew how to make a quality film and work with the limited budget of an independent film.

There were other adaptations of The Little Prince, including a live action movie and a Japanese anime. Jinko didn’t watch any of them.

Producers are an integral part of the animation team. They work closely with the director and story to protect the integrity of the story, keep the project within the budget, and also keep production moving forward.

The first movie Jinko ever saw in theaters was Lady and the Tramp and she later had the honor of meeting the father of all Japanese animation Osamu Tezuka. These were key moments that inspired her to work in the animation industry.

She worked with computer animation way at the beginning as a computer programming, then she went to film school, and then Roger Rabbit changed things for her.

Jinko shares her experience while she worked on Space Jam and Disney’s

She has worked all over the board when it comes to animation and she is very grateful for the variety of experiences.

While working on Nine, Jinko says it was a challenge to animate characters that weren’t human and didn’t speak much. The film was difficult to animate, but was purposely made to look like it was simple.

It wasn’t difficult for Jinko to switch between traditional and computer animation when she worked on the French film The Illusionist, because there was artistic leadership.

Jinko wishes that there were more 2D animation films done in the United States. She and Whitney are both excited about the rerelease of The Iron Giant.

Jinko’s career has come full circle with the The Little Prince and she hopes it’s successful, so more independent animated films will be made.

She is a board member of the Women In Animation and she heads the chapter committee that establishes chapters around the globe.

There are Women In Animation chapters across the USA, but they are also located in Canada, France, Ireland, and India.

Jinko and Whitney discuss how animation is viewed in different countries. The French embrace animation as art. Two men from India actually came to Women In Animation to help them promote it among high school girls as the industry is rapidly growing in that country.

Women In Animation is about sharing knowledge, being available as a resource, and spurring change in the animation industry.

Jinko shares that there’s a huge discrepancy in the amount of female animation students versus how many actually work in the industry. The goal is to get 50/50 representation by 2025.

She ends the interviewing by declaring that people should follow their dreams.

Hello and welcome to twenty-third episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. It’s also time for the third round of interviews for the Ladies of Animation Month, Whitney Grace’s yearly tribute to women who work in the animation industry and mission to inspire girls to pursue their animated ambitions. Kirsty Scanlan is the co-president of the Women in Animation organization. Kirsty fell into animation when she worked at Threshold Entertainment and fell in love with the medium. She is currently Technicolor’s Vice President of Business Development for Technicolor’s Animation and Games group. Whitney and Kristy discuss Kristy’s career the current state of women in the animation industry, and their hopes for the future.

Kristy Scanlan entered the entertainment industry right of college and worked in live action script development, but when she worked at Threshold Entertainment they had an animation studio. She became more involved in the animation side of the studio and fell in love with it.

When Kristy was at Threshold Entertainment, she worked on projects for Lego, Marvel, DC, and some theme parks.

She currently works at Technicolor and is in charge of business development for their studio in Bangalore, India.

One of the services her studio provides is CG outsourcing and her clients include DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, Electronic Arts, Activision, Rockstar Games, Capcom, 2K, Sony Computer Entertainment.

Kristy’s other job was helping revamp the Women In Animation organization to give it new life and help women launch their careers in the animation industry, including networking, educational seminars, and giving them a voice.

70% of women in art schools want to become animators, but only 20% actually work in the animation industry.

Women In Animation’s goal is to have a 50/50 workforce in the animation industry by 2025.

Women In Animation has made strong movements since the organization’s revamp in October 2013.

The entire goal is to empower women, get jobs, and succeed in a field usually dominated my men.

Whitney and Kristy discuss old-fashioned hiring practices and how they could evolve in the future.

Women In Animation is for more diversity not only in the animation industry, but also diversity in culture as a whole.

Self-doubt is one of the biggest barriers that women face.

Kristy shares her experience about females working in the animation industry. She says that things have improved since the 1950s, but there is a whole lot of room for improvement.

Whitney points out that Lotte Reiniger, the first female animation director in the world, is usually a footnote in history books.

Hello and welcome to twenty-second episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. It’s also time for the second round of interviews for the Ladies of Animation Month, Whitney Grace’s yearly tribute to women who work in the animation industry and mission to inspire girls to pursue their animated ambitions. Puppetry has many things in common with animation, including principles that make inanimate characters come to life. Cheryl Henson is a proud promoter of the puppetry arts and preserving her father’s legacy for future generations. If you couldn’t tell by the last name, Cheryl Henson is Jim Henson’s daughter. Jim Henson not only revolutionized the world of modern puppetry with the Muppets, but he also was a singular entertainer and creative genius. Cheryl Henson chats with Whitney about the renovation at the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts with brand new exhibits dedicated to Jim Henson and puppetry from around the world.

Whitney recognized Cheryl Henson at DragonCon by her fabulous fashion sense. She wore an original outfit made for her by the designers of the Dark Crystal fashion line.

Cheryl is the president of the Jim Henson Foundation.

Cheryl was at DragonCon, because she was promoting the new expansion to the Atlanta Center for the Puppetry Arts. The Puppetry Center will house a new collection featuring puppets from the Henson Family’s personal archives.

Jane and Jim Henson were at the Center of Puppetry Arts’s opening back in 1978 and it was founded by Vince Anthony.

The Puppetry Center advocates the art of puppetry with educational programs, a museum, and encouraging anyone, anywhere to make their own puppets.

The new Jim Henson collection will include over 450 new Muppet puppets, but only 75 will be on display at any one time.

The puppets were housed in a storage facility in New Jersey and these were original, screen used Muppets!

All of the Muppets in the Jim Henson collection were refurbished to make them museum ready. All of the foam rubber had to be removed, clean the fleece, stuff with cotton filling, and add a plastic skeleton.

The Puppetry Center hired two fulltime staff members to refurbish the puppets.

The collection will include the Seven Deadly Sins from The Muppets Sex and Violence When they opened the box containing the Muppet Gluttony it actually had real candy on it! They were removed, so it wouldn’t attract bugs.

Cheryl shares her special Robin the Frog story!

The new Puppetry Center will feature an exhibit modeled after the real Muppet workshop.

Jim Henson revolutionized puppet design by making puppets specifically for TV and film.

Cheryl explains that the Puppetry Center will feature all types of puppetry. Nearly all cultures around the world have some form of puppetry.

Whitney and Cheryl discuss how puppetry is a very viable art and how Jim Henson used story in his work.

The Jim Henson Company is very dedicated to exploring the entire world of the Dark Crystal. Whitney shares that she hangs out in the Dark Crystal and Labyrinth worlds when she has writer’s block.

In her own personal opinion, Cheryl believes that her father put character before story.